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Thursday, October 12, 2017

Album Review: The Men - Devil's Music

The Men

Devil Music

***1/2 out of *****

The Men are a band that loves to defy expectations and craft engaging music based around their ever expanding influences. On their excellent 2013 release New Moon there were dips into Americana and folksy piano runs while 2014’sTomorrow’s Hits injected classic rock and a bit more mainstream sheen into their lofi sound but all that is gone on Devil Music. Now the band go back to their roots by putting their collective head down, slamming hard while blasting ahead with full force and fuzzy garage rock fury.

Where on recent releases the band would careen from one genre to the next, here they are in their original stripped down raucous element. The first three numbers all link together into one long distortion filled burner, signaling the bands intent, ending with the best of the trio “Ridin’ On” which contains a fluid and understated guitar solo to finish the successful run. “Lion’s Den” amps up the squawking aggression and the noise rock chaos while “Patterns” keeps the lofi influences but ups the swagger from the low end combo of Rich Samis (drums), and Kevin Faulkner (Bass) turning in the most grooving track on the album.

Lyrically things are muddled as a layer of sound covers every attempt by Mark Perro (vocals, guitar, keys), Nick Chiericozzi (vocals, guitar) to cut through the muck. Vocals and lyrics have never been a strong suit for the Brooklyn four-piece as they lean more towards soundscapes and vistas.

“Violate” drops some screeching guitar work with splashes of speedy punk thrown up for tempo injections before crashing into a brick wall while the honking “Hit The Ground” sprinkles in saxophones under the chaos, twisting things into bubbling pretzel of sound. The come down fear and stripped vocal yearnings flow through “Gun” before the album ends with metallic clanging of “Fire”.

The Men pride themselves on their raw, recorded live (including the vocals) four track sound and Devil's Music is an album they wanted to make so they could go back and listen to themselves. Fortunately fans of grimy garage rock with attitude will want to check this out as well.

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This review got lost in the machine somewhere, and even though the album came out last year, we thought it was worth posting this as we dig The Men and Halloween is this month (Devil Music Indeed). We still like New Moon the best of theirs though.